Enclosed cake tray



Oct. 2D, 1953 t. E. WHITE ET AL ENCLOSED CAKE TRAY 2 Sheets-Sheetl l Filed April 4, 1950 u w I l i l I l l I l l IHA .\\/1/ f/J 2 2 2 l. n n 6 n n w ||l| n m u n n 2 3 f\\ 2 l fllllllllllllIIIIIIHQQIIIIIIIILIIIllllll.

m, 5. www, N/ R I CM .M A D M .Unf WMA RW LAE BJA Oct. 20, 1953 B. E. WHITE ET A1. 2,656,041

ENCLOSED CAKE TRAY Filed April 4, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 zo@ zalf I 3a Jaz INVENTORS. BEN ELWOOD WHITE JOHN ARTHU/' CUSHMAA/q ANDREW A. DUKERT A TTORNEY.

Patented Oct. 20, 1953 2.65am ENCLOSED carta 'man Ben Elwood White; and John A. Cushman, Jr.,j lteedsville, and Andrew A. Dukert, Upper Darby,

Pauassi'gnorsto American Viscose lorporatiom` Wilmington. oe.; s armaron; freeware Application Apr1'1i4, 195 07,. SeriaLNoi 152331778? 2 Claims; (Cl.-Y 29E-'725),

The: present invention relates to centainers1 for storing and protecting al. plurality of similar articlesy in which they may await further. treatments; and. particularly to trays or.A the like. which are, adapted to support a number oi strand packages such asv cakes. of rayorr yarn,

Irc the manufacture o1?V rayon` yarn, particularly in. the process based on acid regeneration of cellulose from a. Viscose solution, the yarn-is oentriugally' collected in; the; form ot cakes of annular shape which are doed from thev spinning' buckets. onto trays or conveyors; and transferred toy a. washing station. After being` su'bjeoted: to series of Washing and other liquid treatments, the cakes. are centrifugally extract-d and placed on trays, Dallets rods or other devices. which. may loeI loaded onto, a. platform or racks and transported to a dryer. Whenlit deaired totransfer the cakes from; one piece of equipment to another, particularly when liquid treatment stations are pQsitonedi ai?. Some distance from each other Within a plant, the cakes are loaded onto, wooden tray-s of open construction. In storing the. cakes on such trays, the cakes are subjected tov considerable evaporation and are supported: in suchl a manner as to be frequently abraded by another tray or the. cakes supported thereon. When it is necessary to hold the cakes Jfor substantial periods between successrve treatments, the. cakes are inclined 12C! dry-uneverrly and subsequently absorb the liquid from the later treatments in a non-uniform manner.

In addition to the damage fromv abrasion to which the cakes are subjected and the lack of susceptibility to uniform treatment of cakes handled on wooden trays, such trays entail considerable maintenance oost and involve. the handling of a great deal of Weight per weight of strand packages when the relative Weights of the trays and the packages is compared.

All object of the invention is to provide a container or tray which is sufficiently enclosed to prevent or substantially inhibit the circulation of air orother gas which might carry water vapor or other volatile liquid from the strand packages supported therebyf It is another object. to provide trays or receivers for supporting and protecting rayon cakes from dust or other contaminants in the atmosphere between processing steps and to shield. the Cakes tiem abrasion which might result from improper manipulation 11.1 the headline of canventional trays. and .sakes s1110- portsd thereby Still another object is to rrovide trays which are lighter than those, of Wooden construction now beine extensively ussd.- @ther 2. objects, ieaturesanaadvantages will be appartlt fkronrthe following description of the inten, on

and thev drawing relating thereto in which Fig. 1 is an elevation view oftwo, and puiclgagesl supported by the lower tray withfportions cut away;

uig. 2l isan elevation in section of the. two trays taken along-lineII-Ilof Fig. 1.1.

Fig. 3i is a pictorial` view of oneoi the. trays showumrigs. 1 anaa;

Fig. l is, a fragmentary section ofl aportion o1 the: tray containing a finger-gripping. depression;

Fie` 5. is.; another.- frssmsntsry set-.tin illus.- tratins another srrsnssmsrfltf-Or manually-esiorms thstrayf: and

Eig., 6` is still-I another. fragmentarysection analogous.A to. Figs. 4. and 5z illustrating,` stillen- Qthsr finger-grip- According to the invention, al plurality of? boic- Shapd trays each comprising substantiall vertical` sidewalls connect-ed by their: top portlons to the periphery of a corrugated door of, which. each valley of arcuate contour. is large. enough and suiciently spaced from adjacent parallel valleys to accommodate a row of cakes. placedin'each valley. The side walls of eaoh trayare of,V cient height (at least twice the radius of curvature. of the arcuate valleys) and the lower edges are of such contour as to. mate with the. 1i er edges of another similar tray 0n which its rst tray is unsupported so that cakes supported non vthe lower tray are enclosed and do not come into contact with the walls and bottom surface of the floor of the overhead tray.

Fig.. 1 illustrates two identical trays 8; and 9. The tray 9 supports a plurality of annular cakes .it on the licorv or deck I I. suspended between Walls lf3 and |41. The tray 8 is adapted in the same manner to support cakes on itsiioor I6, but as illustrated in Figs, 1 and 2, is used as a cover to prevent or inhibit evaporation of liquid from the cakes oftray 9. The tray 8 may 'be readily used to support the cakes in the event another tray is supported onv the top thereof'. A seriesv of trays constructed similarly to trays 8 and .Fl may be stacked to any practical height.y

Trays according to, the. present invention may be constructed with. any number of sake-aligning grooves. or valleys. in the. door of the tray ofany length deemed expedient. The grooves as. shown, are. 0f; @robuste Contour and spaced. to. provide clearance between the cakes when the trays are loaded so that it .is est necessary f9.1"- sakss being clases. 01.1 or removes from the trays. t ecris. mts contact with or be abraded by other cakes a1- ready in position on the trays. As shown in Fig. 1, the depth of the valleys of the iioor I6 below the periphery thereof is sufficiently shallow to expose substantial portions of the circular open regions within the cakes I above those walls connected to the iioor periphery at the opposite ends of the valleys. That is to say, the depth of the valleys just referred to is less than the sum of the radius of the outer surfaces of the cakes and the radius of the inner surfaces thereof. The raised portions of the floor between the valleys are shown at a level disposed well above the iioor periphery at the ends of the valleys.

The trays may be constructed in any manner to give the approximate shape illustrated in the embodiment herein described. As shown, each tray comprises three pieces secured together by fasteners such as stainless steel rivets of the type shown. Each tray comprises two end-panels (best illustrated in Fig. 2) I9 and 2Q, and an inverted U-shaped section ZI. The end-panels I9 and 2B have in-turned peripheral flanges 2?. and 23 which give the panels a generally square and dished conformation. The third section 2l to which the panels i9 and 20 are secured comprises the walls I3 and I4 and the iioor I6 which is molded in such a manner as to have two continuous edges at opposite sides of the section which have the same shape as the peripheral iianges along three sides of the panels I9 and 20. The lower edges I'I of the walls I3 and It are rounded to provide reinforcement of Vthe walls. To obtain still more rigidity metallic rods I'la. and Ita may be molded within the rolled edges I1 and corresponding rolled edges i8 of the tray 8. The anges of the panels and the opposite edges of the section 2| may be secured together by any suitable means such as rivits 25.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the end walls I9 and 2i) of the identical trays 8 and 9 have inturned edges which provide upwardly facing surfaces and downwardly facing surfaces. The downwardly facing surfaces of the upper tray engage the upwardly facing surfaces of the lower tray when the trays are stacked as illustrated and the side walls I3 and Ill of the trays extend into overlapping relationship to substantially enclose the region overlying the floor of the lower tray from the atmosphere. As shown, inwardly facing surfaces along the lower edges of the walls I3 and 114 of the upper tray overlap or engage outwardly facing surfaces along the upper edges of the walls I3 and Ill of the lower tray. Thus, each tray has an upper periphery and a lower periphery of mating configuration, the upper periphery comprising the upwardly facing surfaces of one pair of opposite walls, and the outwardly facing surfaces of the other pair of opposite walls; the lower periphery comprises the downwardly facing surfaces of one pair of opposite walls, and the laterally inwardly facing surfaces of the other pair of walls. Within a plurality of such trays the upper periphery of each tray is adapted to receive the lower periphery of any one of the other trays whereby they may be stacked one on top of the other. Since the end walls of stacked trays shown are disposed in abutting relationship, the side walls are necessarily greater in height than the end walls to provide the overlapping relationship of the side walls shown.

The panels and the section 2I are molded from any desired light-weight high-strength material. Materials found very satisfactory for 4 the fabrication of the tray sections are glass fabric or ber and a binder for the fibrous material consisting of an intermediate condensation product of phthalic acid and allyl alcohol. The fibrous material containing the binder is then subjected to a molding and heat-treating procedure in suitable molds to produce the rigid panels I9 and 20 and the section 2|.

However, substitutions are readily made for the materials just named. Paper, or fibers such as cotton, nylon, fiber, hemp, asbestos, or other relatively non-plastic fibers in the form of mats, felts, fabrics or webs may be used in place of the glass fabric. The phthalic acid-allyl alcohol condensation product may be replaced by other polyesters prepared by reacting an acid such as maleic acid, fumaric acid, phthalic acid or itaconic acid with an alcohol or a glycol such as allyl alcohol, ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol. Unsaturated hydrocarbons such as styrene or cyclopentadiene may be included in commercially prepared reaction mixtures of this type. Many other chemically-resistant materials in common use as binders in the laminating art and suitable fo rthe purposes of the present invention include the acrylic and methacrylic resins, heathardenable silicone resins of the polyorganosiloxane and polysiloxane type, amino resins such as urea-formaldehyde, and melamine-formaldehyde types, phenol-formaldehyde and phenolfurfural resins.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate alternative arrangements for manually gripping the trays. Fig. 4 illustrates a pocket 30 molded into a panel such as panels I9 and 20 of Figs. 1 and 2. This construction is resorted to in case it is desired to reduce the escape of vapor from the tray content to a minimum.

Fig. 5 illustrates a simple slot or aperture 32 formed through the wall of a panel 2Gb similar to those of Figs. 1 and 2. These slots occur at a level of approximately the same elevation as the tops of the cakes contained on the next lower tray when a plurality of loaded trays are stacked. Such slots may be desirable in some instances to allow some vapor to escape from the interior atmosphere of the trays so as to avoid excessive condensation on the interior surfaces thereof.

Fig. 6 illustrates a small cup-shaped molding 34 which may be secured as by rivets to the panel 2Gb to aid in closing off the interior of the tray from the atmosphere.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for storing annular strand packages and substantially enclosing them from the atmosphere comprising a plurality of similar trays, each tray having two side walls and two end walls and a floor for supporting a plurality of packages, said floor comprising a plurality of arcuate valleys of approximately similar depth and radius of curvature, the valleys extending in parallel relationship in a longitudinal direction toward and away from the end walls, said walls having a height of at least twice said radius of curvature and being joined along their top portions to the periphery of the floor to completely enclose a region underneath the floor, said radius of curvature being equal to or greater than the radius of the exterior surfaces of the packages,

the axes of said arcuate valleys extending transversely labove the upper edges of the end walls, the upper periphery of each tray comprising upwardly facing surfaces on one pair of opposite walls and outwardly facing surfaces on the other pair of walls of the tray, the lower periphery comprising downwardly facing surfaces on one pair of opposite walls and inwardly facing surfaces on the other pair of walls of the same tray, the upper periphery of each being of mating con figuration with its lower periphery adapting one tray to be placed on top of another with the lower periphery of the upper tray in mating relationship with the upper periphery of the adjacent lower tray, the Walls of adjacent trays when stacked one on top of the other being contiguous and having said upwardly and downwardly facing surfaces in abutting relationship and said inwardly and outwardly facing surfaces in overlapping relationship thereby substantially enclosing the package-supporting floors of all trays except that of the top tray in the stack from the atmosphere.

2. Apparatus as deilned in claim 1 wherein said 6 upwardly facing surfaces and said downwardly Vfacing surfaces of each tray are surfaces of the vend walls, and the side walls are greater in height than the end walls.

o BEN ELWOOD WHITE.

JOHN' A. CUSHMAN, JR. ANDREW A. DUKERT.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 459,697 Atkinson Sept. 15, 1891 858,331 Brewster June 25, 1907 15 1,083,149 Stearns Dec. 30, 1913 1,389,986 Ristenpart Sept. 6, 1921 1,428,070 Young Sept. 5, 1922 1,488,025 Poynter Mar. 25, 1924 2,456,481 Ballantyne et al. 'Dec. 14, 1948 20 2,483,269 Fender Sept. 27, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 218,206 Great Britain July 3, 1924 

